The present invention relates generally to cooking apparatus, and in particular, to a cooking apparatus for automatically basting food prepared therein.
It is well known among good cooks that it is often important to periodically baste or moisten food during the food preparation process. This is particularly important when barbecuing or using an outdoor grill for cooking food. Often food cooked with a charcoal or gas grill is dry and undesirable unless the food is periodically moistened during the cooking process. Food grilled in other environments, such as restaurants, is subject to the same conditions.
It is also well known among good cooks that the liquid used to baste or periodically moisten food may vary. Some cooks prefer water. Other cooks prefer wine, beer, vinegar, barbecue sauce or another spiced liquid.
Typically the cook manually applies the basting liquid to the food at intervals during the cooking process. This process has obvious drawbacks and inefficiencies, including consuming the cook""s time and allowing for a large margin of error in the basting process.
Automatic basting apparatus have been proposed for alleviating the problems and inefficiencies associated with manually basting food during the food preparation process. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,732,137 issued to Parsons, an apparatus for dispensing a liquid basting sauce through an elongated sauce delivery tube is disclosed. The sauce delivery tube has multiple spray nozzles suspended in spaced relationship along a tube and above a barbecue grill. Connected to one end of the delivery tube is a pressurized sauce supply bottle, which contains the selected basting sauce. A timer controlled injection valve connects the pressurized sauce supply bottle to the delivery tube so that activation of the valve by the timer device causes the sauce to be injected under pressure into the tube and dispensed through the spray nozzles. In addition to disclosing a pressurized sauce supply bottle, Parsons discloses using a supply of compressed air to pull sauce from a non-pressurize bottle.
A major problem with the apparatus disclosed in Parsons is the requirement of a pressurized basting liquid or a source of compressed air to force the basting liquid down a delivery tube. Since the basting sauce is often prepared by the cook just prior to cooking the food, a pressurized supply of the basting sauce is generally not available. Similarly, maintaining a supply of compressed air is often undesirable and impractical.
Therefore, a need exists for a practical, self-basting cooking apparatus that eliminates the inefficiencies and drawbacks of manual basting and addresses the shortcomings of known automatic basting apparatus.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a cooking apparatus includes a housing, a food supporting structure within the housing, and a heat source below the food supporting structure. A plurality of nozzles are mounted spaced from each other and above the food supporting apparatus. A delivery tube is in communication with the nozzles such that a liquid in the delivery tube is transported to the nozzles. A pump is activated to inject a liquid from a supply tube into the delivery tube. The liquid is preferably stored in a supply container that is connected to the supply tube. An electronic control circuit activates the pump at predefined intervals for a predefined duration. Preferably, a first timer circuit determines the predefined interval and a second timer circuit determines the predefined duration.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a method of cooking a food item includes (a) placing the food item on a food supporting structure; (b) activating a pump to supply a basting liquid from a supply tube to a delivery tube; and (c) supplying the basting liquid from the delivery tube to the food item. Preferably, the food supporting structure is a rotisserie and/or a grill and the supply tube receives liquid from a supply container containing water, vinegar, wine, beer, or barbecue sauce.